Exterior of the Suzzallo Library a the University of Washington.
Photo: Joe Mabel/Wikimedia Commons

Exterior of the Suzzallo Library a the University of Washington.

University of Washington student Max Lang holds up a cardboard viewfinder to help him as he sketches the steps and columns of the Grand staircase inside of Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington, on Wednesday April 25, 2007. Lang 20 is a sophomore from Lumby, Canada and is working on an art project for his Art 190 class.
By: Gilbert W. Arias/Seattle PI
Photo: Gilbert W. Arias, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

University of Washington student Max Lang holds up a cardboard...

Tour guide and University of Washington senior Sam Flanigan CQ, conduct a tour for high school students, and their parents on Tuesday July 18, 2006.
By: Gilbert W. Arias/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Photo: GILBERT W. ARIAS, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Tour guide and University of Washington senior Sam Flanigan CQ,...

The reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the University of Washington.
Photo: Joe Mabel/Wikimedia Commons

The reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the University of...

The reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the University of Washington.
Photo: Joe Mabel/Wikimedia Commons

The reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the University of...

The reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the University of Washington.
Photo: Joe Mabel/Wikimedia Commons

The reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the University of...

The reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the University of Washington.
Photo: Joe Mabel/Wikimedia Commons

The reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the University of...

Hanging lamp in the reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the University of Washington.
Photo: Joe Mabel/Wikimedia Commons

Hanging lamp in the reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the...

Bookcase of the reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the University of Washington.
Photo: Joe Mabel/Wikimedia Commons

Bookcase of the reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the...

Ceiling of the reading room in the Suzzallo Library a the University of Washington.
Photo: Joe Mabel/Wikimedia Commons

The Suzzallo Library, which the University of Washington started building 91 years ago Monday, is one of the "16 Coolest College Libraries in the Country," according to Business Insider.

Henry Suzzallo made a new library a priority after becoming president of the University of Washington in 1915, according to a UW writeup. The university's library had outgrown its first home, in one of the buildings erected for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.

In 1923, Seattle architects Carl F. Gould, Sr. and Charles H. Bebb completed the design for the library, using the Collegiate Tudor Gothic style they had developed for the 1915 campus plan. The UW broke ground on April 14, 1923.

Governor Roland Hill Hartley, who took office in 1924, battled with Suzzallo over university spending, including on the library, according to HistoryLink.org. Hartley packed the UW Board of Regents, which fired Suzzallo in 1926.

That same year, the university completed the first wing, which faces the central plaza and includes the famous reading room. The library was named for Suzzallo after his death, in 1933.

The second, southeast wing, opened in 1935. The original plan called for a 260-foot a tower in the center of the library. That was never built.

The library's exterior features sandstone, precast stone, terra-cotta, brick, a slate roof, and leaded and stained-glass windows. Shields around the facade bear the coats of arms of various universities around the world.

UW faculty chose 18 historic figures -- including Plato, Johannes Gutenberg, William Shakespeare and Benjamin Franklin -- in 1923, to symbolize contributions to learning and culture. Tacoma sculptor Allan Clark created terra-cotta likenesses, which stand in niches upon the exterior buttresses. Clark also created cast stone figures depicting "Mastery," "Inspiration" and "Thought," to stand over the portals of the main entrance.